Per Electronista, Apple today announced the iPad Air, a fifth generation of its flagship 9.7-inch tablet. The name stems from its new design, which weighs just 1 pound, in part thanks to thinner side bezels. Inside it uses an A7 processor, paired with an M7 motion co-processor. It includes a 5 megapixel iSight camera, a 1080p FaceTime HD camera, and dual microphones. Wireless technology incorporates Bluetooth 4.0, extended LTE coverage, and 802.11n Wi-Fi with MIMO antennas, potentially doubling Wi-Fi performance up to 300Mbps.

The tablet will come in silver/white and space gray colors, and continue to offer up to 10 hours of battery life. A 16GB model will start at US$499. 32GB is US$599, 64GB is US$699, and 128GB is US$799.

The product is set to launch in about 40 countries on November 1st. Significantly, one of those countries will be China, which has never before been a launch region for the iPad.